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Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Stickin' around

As usual I was performing my morning before-breakfast routine in order to silence the meowing and increasingly loud squawking of chickens so that I could sit down to a slightly more peaceful meal. After feeding the marauding meow monster, I opened the backdoor and stepped out to the barrel of chook feed. It was then I twigged that the balustrade on the ramp had grown an extra rather long appendage overnight. Although its mind tricks were making it look rather like a stick, it wasn't working quite so well for matching the colour of the rail. Behind the stiff posture and poker face I could imagine the tiny titan insect brain repeating "blue stick, blue stick, blue stick -aaaaargh Don't look at her! Stay calm and still like a stick - I'm a stick, I'm a stick, I'm a BLUE stick."

It even played the game and kept its cool long enough for us to get up close and personal and take some snaps.

Oh hi guys, mind if I hang around for a while?

I think the blue mantra is starting to work

A little searching on the net revealed our stick insect matches most closely with the descriptions and photos of the Titan Stick Insect (Acrophylla titan) and a mature female at that judging by her approximate size.

About Me

We live on a semi-rural block in subtropical to temperate South-East QLD. After moving here nearly a year ago we have restarted our gardening and self-sufficiency journey from scratch. We keep chickens, grow fruit and vegetables as organically as possible and experiment with new recipes and ideas around the home in order to tread more lightly on the planet and delight in domestic discoveries. We hope you enjoy reading our quirky stories about our adventures and mishaps.